Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Our kids love strawberries. Every one of them. I think Sarah's love for them is greater than any of the others, but they all are excited when we get them at the store.

We went and got some food at Aldi today - and I have to thank Stacy Eide for helping us save hundreds of dollars every month by getting us hooked on going to Aldi instead of the regular grocery store - anyway, the strawberries were $2.69 for a package. In the winter...wow that's a great deal! So, we brought them home and they were sitting on the counter. Sarah comes home from day care and without even taking off her coat notices the strawberries and says "shrawberries."

Monday, February 21, 2011

The weather has once again turned colder and with no snow to play with outside it is always hard to find things to tire out the kids. We decided that it would be fun to take the kids swimming. We got a Y membership last year and it is great to use for swimming during the cold and yucky months.

The Tri-County Y has a great zero depth area along with two water slides. The kids had a blast!!

This was their second time at that Y. We went previously with Ms. Stacy and they were excited to show the pool to Brian.

Friday, February 18, 2011

This video is from this fall when Caroline's choir sang with the senior choir at our church. I just figured out how to make it small enough that it would load. So the quality isn't the best, but you get the idea.

The kids always love singing with the senior choir. It is such a great experience.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Caroline was in a piano competition this past weekend. This is something I never did in all my years of playing the piano. Brian took her and said she went into a room with an older lady who seemed like "she had been teaching piano for 100 years".

We are so proud of how she is doing. Especially since this is her first year.

Both girls wanted to learn to play after their Kindergarten teacher had a piano in her room and would play songs for them to learn and sing. I have fond memories of my Kindergarten teacher and she had a piano in her room too!!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Another Valentine's Day craft. I saw this craft in the February issue of Family Fun. The kids thought the pops would be fun to make for their friends.

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﻿ I was able to find candy canes this far after Christmas. You have to put the candy canes in the oven to be able to form them and it wasn't until after the house wasn't smelling like mint that I looked on the package and saw "Fruit Flavored". Oh, well...they probably will taste better with the fruit and white chocolate anyway.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

We needed lamps for our living room. The piano from my childhood and my Mom's is in our living room which is on the North side of the house.

Caroline usually practices piano in the evening. While this isn't an issue in the fall, summer and spring the light in the winter isn't so good. While she hasn't complained I figure it was best to get more light in the room before we had to take her to the eye doctor.

I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted for the room, but I knew I didn't want to spend a lot. So, off to Goodwill I went. A few years ago I bought three matching brass lamps at Goodwill and we spray painted them black and got new shades. I knew the hardest part of this was going to be finding two lamps that match and had shapes that I thought would look good painted.

I saw these two lamps on the shelf and was so excited!! Sad, I know. The price made me even happier - $3.99 each.

The 80's lamp BEFORE

The 80's lamp AFTER

Comparison of the two

Then the search for shades. Brian went to Wal-Mart and came home with these two shades. I thought they looked pretty good. The debate now is which type of florescent light I like - either the one on the right or left. I hate the look of most florescent light bulbs, but I'm trying to find one I like.

Final Look

I'm thinking the mirror has to go and the lamps might be a bit tall, but for around $35 total I've got two new lamps. :)

Saturday, February 5, 2011

The crafty person in me tries to make projects for the various holidays. While not all projects are a success, this one turned out better than I first thought it would. I found the idea on this blog and the insane part of me thought "what the heck, I'll give it a try".

After reading the directions I knew I needed the heart forms. I asked an on-line friend who did this craft what she used. I was able to purchase silicone ice cube trays from the Dollar Spot at Target. They were $2.50 for the pack of two....not sure how that's a Dollar, but I was happy they were cheap.

The next part is taking all the paper off the crayons and snapping them into small pieces. We are very lucky because one of our children (Sarah Grace) has the hobby of snapping crayons. While this usually is frustrating it worked out good for this project! I already had quite a few done. I still had plenty of wrappers to take off and make the pieces smaller. The wrapers come off the crayons from the Dollar Store much eaiser than the Crayola ones!

I didn't get the camera out until after they were done in the oven...oops!

After 15 or 20 minutes in a low temperature oven, the trays look like this:

Little fingers (Sarah's) wanted to help in every step.

The more colors you put together the better the result.

We are going to try and use the forms again...I'll report back if they turn out to be a yucky mess.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Death is a hard subject for a lot of us. I've found that in some ways my children deal with death better than I do. My Dad's mother passed away on January 31st and today we are having a celebration of her life.

Old Photo...This is how I picture my Grandmother in my mind. (upper left)

At my high school graduation

More recent photo

As with any death I find comfort in knowing she is in heaven as we celebrate her life here on earth.

In the Lutheran church the first Sunday in November is All Saints Sunday. We celebrate the lives of those who have gone before us. One song we sing is "For All the Saints".

"For all the saints, who from their labours rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia."

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

We haven't had a lot of snow this year. While I'm okay with that the girls and Brian always wish for a lot of snow. After the few snowfalls we've had Brian has snow blowed the snow from the bottom of the driveway to the top. This takes great talent and a lot of time to get the snow just right. :)

On Sunday the weather was perfect and all the stars were aligned for Brian to help the older girls (and friend Grace) finish their igloo.

About Us

We've been married for 12 years and have three beautiful daughters.
Caroline (10) loves singing, playing soccer and reading.
Julia (9) loves dancing, singing and drawing. Sarah Grace (4) loves running around crazy and playing with her big sisters.
We feel blessed to have these three special girls in our lives and even though our days are crazy, we wouldn't change it for anything.